Apparatus for handling newspapers and the like.



C. 8. JENNINGS APPARATUS FOR HANDLING NEWSPAPERS AND THE LIKE.

' APPLICATION FILED JAN.9. 1915- 1,245,728.

Press 4/ Patented Nv. 6, 191?.

7225 H/forney UNITED sTATns PATENT barren.

CHESTER S. JENNINGS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE LAMSON COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF .NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR HANDLING NEWSPAPERS AND THE LIKE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov, 6, 1917.

Application filed January 9, 1915. Serial No. 1,312.

conveying newspapers and the like from,

for example, the press to the distributing room and it has for one of its objects the provision of means whereby papers may be delivered from the press either from what is known as the quarter-fold form thereof or in the half-fold.

It is also aimed to provide means whereby the apparatus may be caused to shunt the articles being conveyed thereby in any one of a given number of courses or paths leading to spaced distributing points.

A still further object of the invention is to so drive a belt conveyer, for example, that said conveyer may be operatively driven from some rotary element of the press, whereby to convey articles from said press toward a paper elevator; or said belt conveyer may be automatically driven independently of the press whether the latter be operating or not; whereby to prevent breakage of a part of the press, or to prevent injury to the papers being delivered from said press, in the event of some portion of the apparatus being rendered temporarily inoperative; while further all papers which may have come from the press and which are in course of transittherefrom toward some determined distributing point, may be delivered to said point despite the stoppage of the press.

This last object is one which cannot readily be expressed in but few words and it together with those previously mentioned and others hereinafter to be referred to will be discussed more fully in the specification; while the novel elements and combinations of elements whereby said objects may be attained will be more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof and in which like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, I have somewhat diagrammatically illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention, but as I am aware of various changes and modifications which may be made herein without departing from the spirit of the invention,

I desire to be limited only by the scope of said claims.

In the drawing Figure l is a plan iew of a preferred arrangement of newspaper conveying apparatus; certain parts of this apparatus hav-' ing been broken-away on the irregular line Il of Fig; 2 for convenience of illustration.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on line II-H of Fig. 1. V

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a clutch pulley which constitutes an element of the apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and

Fig. 4 is a detail section of said pulley taken on line IVIV of Fig. 3; the pawls, pins and shaft being shown in full.

A HBWSDHPBIfQIESS which may be of any suitable construction has been diagrammatically represented in Figs, 1 and 2 and this press has been designated 1. It may if desired be provided with the usual fly vanes which have been designated 2 and which are continuously rotated by means of the shaft 3 for the purpose of receiving papers which have been half-folded, and depositing them as at 4 upon a belt conveyer 5.

In this application the term belt, it is to be understood, is to be of suiiicient breadth to comprehend belts, cords, wires, etc, such as are considered mechanical equivalents in devices of this character.

In the construction shown the belt 5 is of the multiple type and comprises four narrow bands or belts each of which passes around a clutch pulley 6 mounted upon a shaft 7 which may conveniently be driven from some rotary part of the press; the

mode of driving the shaft 7 not being shown since for the purpose of this application said shaft may simply be considered as one which is normally continuously driven in the direction of the arrow indicated adjacent thereto in Fig. 2.

Each of the clutch pulleys 6, however, is preferably of the type shown in Figs. 3

a nees as rotated in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3, said pulley will be correspondingly driven in the same direction, which happens to be, as viewed in Fig. 3, clockwise.

When, however, the shaft 7 ceases to rotate clockwise which may happen when for example the press has been stopped or it may be that there has been a breakdown in the press by reason of which this particular shaft is no longer driven rotarily, then in such case if the belt 5 be impelled in the direction of the arrows adjacent the same, which is the direction in which the belt normally travels, the dogs 8 will be rotated clockwise about their respective pivots 9 and will thereby permit the pulley 6 to be driven by the belt 5, idly upon the shaft 7; the latter offering substantially no resistance to the continued movement of the belt.

Each of the belt sections 5 are correspondingly passed around a second clutch pulley, 10, mounted upon a shaft 11 journaled in brackets 12, carried upon the uprights 13' of a vertical or substantially vertical elevator.

The pulleys 10 should of course rotatewith the shaft 11 when the latter is rotated clockwise, as viewed in Fig. 2; but since they are clutch pulleys of the character above described when shaft 11 is not being rotated, the belt 5 will be free to rotate said pulleys idly upon said shaft.

dounted upon the shaft 11 is a sprocket wheel 1%, or some similar device, and if a sprocket wheel be employed, this latter may be conveniently driven by means of a chain 15, shown in section in Fig. l, and the center line of which has been indicated in Fig. 2 by a dot and dash line 15'.

The chain 15 constitutes a means whereby to drive the pulleys 10 through the intermediacy of the shaft 11, and thereby said belts 5, wh n for any reason the shaft 7 ceases to driven.

By reason of this provision it is possible to clear the conveying apparatus of news papers which have been deposited upon the belt from the press, after the press has stopped.

Ordinarily however, the shaft 7 is positively driven and by means of the clutch pulleys the belts 5 are caused to move the papers which may have been deposited thereon for example from the fly vanes 2, away the press and toward the elevator, the uprights of which have been designated lliounted upon the shaft ii i the pulleys l0, and alternating ierewith. are sheave wheels or pulleys around which are passed round belts or cords l? of any suitable material; and the ascending limbs "il of these belts are adapted to contermediate act with the ascending limbs 18' of similar belts 18 whereby to elevate newspapers therebetween in a known fashion.

The belts 18 are extended around pulleys or idlers l9, loosely mounted upon a shaft 20 journaled in brackets 21, carried by the frame of the elevator; and these belts 18 are preferably driven at the same rate as are belts 17.

Of course the belt 17 may be independently driven but it is preferable to mount the pulleys 16 fixedly upon the shaft 11 so that said belts 17 may be driven by means of the chain 15.

From the foregoing'it will be seen that the belts 5 are adapted to be driven and indeed normally are driven from both ends thereof, but that when for any reason one or the other of the shafts 711 ceases to revolve, said belts 5 continue to advance in the direction of the arrows indicated adjacent thereto at their. normally linear velocity.

This is of very great advantage in certain cases because if the belt 5 be driven slowly from the elevating mechanism, or in other words from the chain 15, and be not operatively connected to the press, when the elevator stops for any reason, the fly of the press may continue to deliver papers to the belts such aS those designated 5, until the papers havepiled up to an amount suflicient to bend or break said fly, or the vanes thereof. Furthermore the papers under such conditions are apt to be mutilated.

if on the other hand the belts 5 were to be driven slowly from the press, then when the press was stopped, any papers which might have been left upon said belts would not be delivered to the elevator.

Further if the clutch pulleys 6 and 10 apt to be thrown when the shaft 11 or the shaft 7 ceased to be driven, or even if said shafts were not driven at speeds inversely proportional to the diameters of the respective pulleys 6- and 10.

The papers traversing the path indicated in full lines by the upper side of the belt 5 shown in 2, encounter small belts 22, which pass around pulleys 28, fixedly mounted upon shaft 11, an idler roll 24, iournaled in brackets 25, carried by the up rights 13, and a second idler roll 26 similarly iournaled in=brackets 27, as shown in Fig. 2.

lay no claim herein to the provision of these belts 22 in combination with such an elevator as that just described; since my copending application, Serial No. 1108, filed January 8, 1915, is more particularly concerned with these features.

There is, however, a special relationship between the said elevator and its oblique belts 22 and thebelts 5; since, as will be its these belts may be moved from the position in which they are indicated in full lines in Fig. 2, to the dotted line position designated 5, and obviously While when the belts 5 are thereto, were it not for the provision of the;

belts 22 under such conditions, difiiculty might be found in attempting to makethe papers turn sharply through 90 degrees.

In any case, however, these belts 22 favor the-delivery of articles from the belts 5, no matter in which of the said positions said belts may be disposed, the papers being fed in between the belts 17 and 18, smoothly and without being mussed.

The papers delivered by the fly vanes. 2 tothe belts 5 are usually half-folds; that is the numbered sheets of paper have been folded once, but it happens occasionally that it is desired to deliver the papers, from the press as quarter-folds, or in other words with the numbered newspaper sheets folded twice, the folds being at right angles to each other.

Such quarter-folds may be delivered to belts 28, portions 'of which are shown as disposed around pulleys 29, mounted upon a shaft'30,=journaled in brackets 31carried upon the respective sides of the press.

It may be conveniently assumed that the belts 28 are continuously driven in the direction of the arrows adjacent thereto and that said belts deliver to belts 32, which pass around pulleys 33 and a roller 34.

Pulleys 33 may be fixedly mounted upon the shaft 30 and since the pulleys 29 are also fixedly positioned upon this shaft, the belts 28 are caused to drive the belts 32.

The roller 34 may have the trunnions or spindle 35 thereof journaled in arms 36, which are pivoted upon the shaft 30 near the respective extremities of the latter; the arms 36 being rigidly connected to each other by means of tie-rods 37 or the like.

One of the arms 36 has a dependent prong or extension 38, which is in engagement with an eccentric cam 39, pivoted upon a stud 40; the outer extremity of the latter carrying an operating handle 41.

hen this handle is in the position in which it is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, obviously the roller 34 will occupy its lowest position, whereas when-the cam 39 has been rotated through 180 degrees, the said roller 34 will have been elevated to the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

This upward disposition of the roller 34 need, however, only be effected when the papers being conveyed by' the belts 5 are of excessive thiclmess; since ordinarily when the roller 34 occupies its full line position and the belts 5 are disposed indthe position in which they are shown in solid lines in Fig. 2 there willbe sufiicient clearance under the roller to permit of the small stacks of half-folds to pass freely thereunder.

The advantage of this, further, is that when the belts 5 have been moved to their dotted line positions in which they may be more properly received the quarter-folds from the belts 32, without undue slippage of the piled papers upon one another, the said papers practically turn through almost 90 degrees as they pass over belts 32, 5 and certain small belts 42 now to be described.

Belts 42 pass around idlers 43 and pulleys 44; the latter being fixedly .mounted upon a shaft 45, journaled in bearings 46, which extend laterally from substantially upright members 47, which correspond to the uprights '13 above referred to.

In the present'case these members 47 have been caused to lean slightly toward the press in order to accommodate the apparatus to the building in "which it happened to be installed, but it is obvious that the elevator which is shown in connection with these uprights 47, might have the belts 48 and 49 thereof vertically disposed as in the preceding case if it should be found convenientsotodoxv The pulleys 43 are mounted upon a shaft 50, which extends between arms 51, somewhat similar to the arms 36 previously described, and ordinarily these arms and said shaft. 50 are disposed in positions in which they are shown in Fig. 2.

However for additional clearance above the belts 5, should it befound desirable for any reason to provide such additional clearance, it is possible to hook up the shaft 50 by means of, for example, the hook 52, which may depend from the shaft 53, upon which ride the pulleys 54 over. which pass the belts 49; the shaft 53 extending between brackets 55 mounted upon the uprights 47.

The shaft 45 not only carries the pulleys 44, above referred to, but also sheave wheels or pulle "s 56 around which ass the cords i l a or belts 48, above referred to, and the ascending opposed limbs of the belts 48 and 49 respectively designated 48 and 49, co-

act with each other to elevate the papers, in

substantially the same way as do the corresponding portions of the belts 17 and 18.

Assuming now that the arms 51 are disposed as shown in their full line positions in Fig. 2, and that it be desired to deliver the quarter-fold papers from the press.

In this case the press would be set in a manner not shown, to cause the quarterfold papers to pass down the belts 28, on to the belts 32, and the belts 5 would be raised into their dotted line positions, whereby to deflect thepapers into engagement with the belts 42.

vThese would in turn cause the papers to travel around and upwardly until they engaged the belt sections 48 which would still further deflect the forward edges of the papers so that said papers would be introduced between the belt sections 48 and 49, to be carried upwardlythereby to the proper distributing or delivery point.

-Th'is point would obviously be difi'erent from that at which the half-fold papers would be delivered after they had been placed upon the belts 5 by the fly vanes 2, when the belts 5 are in their lower or full line positions; since when said belts 5 are so disposed, the papers will clear the belts l2 and continue on until they strike the-belts 22 and are defiectedtup between belts 17 and '18 in the manner already described.

If for any reason it be desired to deliver half-fold papers by means of the belts 48 and 49, the handle, 11 may here again be rotated through 180 degrees and the belts 5 be raised into their ,doted line positions whereby to accomplish this end.

The preferred means for setting the belts 5 so as to switch papers therefrom on to the oblique belts 42 comprises a roll 55, the shaft or spindle 56 otwhich is journaled in the respective upper extremities of "5' shaped arms 57 These arms are pivotally connected at 58 to brackets 59, which are attached to the uprights 47.

@ne of the arms 5?, carries a latch 60, pivoted thereto at 61', and operable by means of a handle 62, whereby the arms 57, may be latched up in a position whereby to cause the roll 55 to occupy its dotted line position 55.

The element 63 which engages latch 60, may be conveniently attached to one of the uprights 47, as indicated in Fig. 2, and the latch may be provided with a spring 64-,the lower extremity 01" which may be seated in an extension of the T-shaped arm 57.

This switching device is also preferably provided with a second roll 65, which may be identical in construction with the roll 55 and may have the shaft or spindle 66 thereoi journaled in the respective lower extremities of the arms 57.

The length of the head of the T-shaped members 57, or in other words substantially the distance between the centers of shafts 56 and 66, is such that while the roller 55 is adapted to operatively dispose the belts 55 with respect to the belts l2; when said roller is not so disposed, the roller 65 will be in engagement with the undersides of the belts 5 and will maintain said belts taut.

in other words this switching device constitutes a combined means for placing the belts 5 under the requisite tension and for also displacing one side of each of said belts laterally into operative relationship with the belts 4L2.

In general, the operation of the device is as follows:-

When the rollers 56 and 66 are intheir respective lowermost positions, the belts 5 are under proper tension and the half-holds which may be delivered thereto from the fly vanes 2 are advanced in the direction of the arrow, beneath the drum or roller 3d.

These papers also clear the rollers or idlers i3and the papers are hence carried on until they are brought into engagement with the oblique sides of the belts 22. Here the direction of movement of the papers is changed and they are turned up by successive bends until they are caused to travel in a vertical plane between the belts l7 and 18.

it is obvious of course that while I have shown such a means. for receiving the papers or like articlesfrom the belts 5, I do not desire to be limited thereto in any way since it may frequently happen that printing establishments will have no occasion to distribute both half and quarter-folds, in which case, one of the elevators, for example, that comprising the belts 17 and 18 and the feed belts 22, may be eliminated.

Should it be desired now to forward the half-folds from the fan to some second distributing point such, for example, as that at which the left hand elevator delivers, it is merely-necessary to raise the arms 57, with their rolls 55 and 65, whereupon the slack of the belt is taken up upon the upper side thereofrather than upon the lower side, and the belts 5 are operatively disposed with respect to the belts 42 which deliver to the belts 4H9.

In this case the handle ll would preferably be rotated through 180 degrees in order to dispose the roller 34 in its dotted line position, to clear the half-fold papers.

Should the papers coming from the press be in quarter-folds, these would be delivered down the belts 28 to the belts 32 and would pass thence on to the deflected belts 5, which in turn would cause these papers to engage belts 42, from which they pass into the spaces between the ascending limbs of belts 48-49.

It will thus be seen that a variet of adjustments whereby to produce diii'erent results are possible, but I particularly direct attention to the novel switching means which to the best of my knowledge has never been used heretofore in connection with belt conveyers or the like.

it will be understood of course that in orderto restore the belt 5 to the position in which it is shown in Fig. 2 it is merely necessary to depress the handle 62. to unlatch the switching device, which will thereupon return to its normal position in which it is shown in the drawing.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is 1. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combination of a conveyer, means to receive articles from said conveyer, and separate means for driving said conveyer from two spaced points therealong, said last mentioned means including mechanism to permit said conveyer to continue to be driven by one of said separate means when the second of the same has been rendered inoperative, whereby to deliver articles being carried by said conveyer to said receiving means despite the inoperativeness of said second driving means. I

2. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combination of a conveyer, rotatable means for loading said conveyer at a determined point therein, means to re ceive articles from said conveyer, and sepa rate means for drivingsaid conveyer from two spaced points therealong, said last mentioned means including mechanism to permit said conveyer to continue to be driven by one of said separate means when the second of the same has been rendered inoperative, whereby to deliver articles being carried by said conveyer, j to said receiving I means despite the inoperativeness of said second driving means, one of said separate means being normally driven at a speed bearing a definite relationship to the speed of said rotatable loading means.

8. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combination of a conveyer, a power driven loading device for depositing articles on said conveyer at a determined rate, and means to normally drive said conveyer at a speed corresponding to said determined rate, from two spaced points, said driving means including mechanism to permit said conveyer to continue to be driven by said means at one of said points when said means at the other of said pointshas bee rendered inoperative.

4. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combination of. a belt conveyer, with means to switch articles from the carrying surface of said conveyer into a path other than that in which said articles would normally travel when being conveyed further by said belt conveyer, said means including belt conveyer mechanism to draw articles upwardly away from said carrying surface and means to operatively displace a partof said belt conveyer from the position which it occupies when said mechanism is idle, to cause the latter when operative to co-act with said belt conveyer to pick up said articles from said carrying surface.

5. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combination of a plurality of means for elevating articles, a belt conveyer to serve and common to said elevating means, and adjustable means for changing the relative positions of said elevating means with respect to said belt conveyer to efiect delivery of articles from said belt conveyer to one or another of said elevating means, in correspondence with the adjustment of said changing means. a

6. In conveying apparatus for newspapers and the like, the combinationof a plurality of means for elevating folded newspapers, a belt conveyer to serve and common to said plurality of elevating means, movable belt supporting means to change the elevation of parts of the carrying side of said belt conveyer to automatically deliver folded newspapers from said belt conveyer to one or another of said elevating means, and means for delivering newspapers to said belt conveyer for delivery by the latter to one or another of said elevating means, according to the setting of said movable belt supporting-means.

7. The combination of means for delivering therefrom articles, with a belt conveyer for receiving said articles, means for delivering articles of a different style to said belt conveyer, means to pick up said last mentioned articles from said conveyer, means to cause said belt conveyer to deliver said first mentioned articles at a determined point, and a belt supporting device movable from a lower to an upper position of the same to displace a part of said belt conveyer to better adapt it to receive said articles of a difl'erent style from the delivering means for the latter and to deliver them to said pick-up means, said device being beneath said part of said belt conveyer and said pick-up means being above said part.

8. The combination of a belt conveyer with two means to deliver articles thereto from points thereabove, one of said means being spaced a determineddistance from the carrying surface of said belt conveyer when the latter is conveying-articles received fromthe other of said means, means to remove articles from said conveyer, also, spaced at determined distance from said carrying surface when'the latter is conveying said articles received from said other delivering means, and means to reduce said determined distances, to better adapt said first mentioned one of said delivering means to properly deliver said articles to said belt conveyer and to cause said removing means to co-act with said carrying surface to remove said last mentioned articles.

9. The combination of a belt conveyer with means to receive articles from said conveyer when a portion of the latter is lifted into a determined position, a combined means to maintain the belt of said conveyer taut and to hold said portion in said determined position, and means to mount said last mentioned means to adaptit for movement up or down as desired. r

10. ,The combination of a belt conveyer with means to pick up articles from said conveyer when a portion of the latter is lifted into a determined position, and a combined means to maintain the belt of said conveyer taut and to hold said portion in said determined position.

11. Conveying apparatus comprising a conveyer for carrying articles along a determined path and unloading said articles at a given point, a second conveyer' above the conveyer aforesaid, and means for switching said articles upwardly out of said path before they reach said point and onto said second conveyer, said switching means including a device for displacing a longitudinally moving portion of one of said conveyers upwardly toward said second conveyer.

12. Conveying apparatus comprising a belt conveyer for carrying articles along a determined path and unloading said articles at a givenpoint, a second belt conveyer above the first, and means for switching said articles out or" said path before they reach said point and up onto said second conveyer, said switching means including a device for displacing a side of the belt of one of said belt conveyers, laterally toward the other of said belt conveyers.

13. Conveying apparatus comprising a conveyer for carrying articles along a detends longitudinally of its conveyer and supports articles traveling thereon.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

CHESTER S. JENNINGS.

Witnesses:

MAUD K. PORTER, ETHEL M. JORDAN. 

